06.15.2017 Billboard​

Spoitfy has struck a global partnership with AXS, a subsidiary of live entertainment powerhouse AEG, and Eventbrite,* a leading event technology platform. Both ticketing services will offer the streaming giant’s users personalized recommendations for local gigs and access to ticketing.

All parties announced the initiative Thursday morning.

To date Spotify has featured over 150,000 artists with concert dates in more than 100,000 venues. Today’s announcement expands Spotify's ticketing reach which now includes such stages and events as Red Rocks Amphitheatre in the US, The O2 Arena in London and the Ericsson Globe in Stockholm from AXS; as well as Great American Music Hall, Mohawk in Austin and the Newport Jazz Festival from Eventbrite.

“This integration enables a direct connection between the 100 million Spotify users and seeing their favorite bands live,” commented Dean DeWulf, senior VP, music for AXS, in a statement. “Fans, Artists, promoters and our venue clients all benefit from this aligned technology -- it’s a natural fit that extends the reach of the AXS platform into the Spotify ecosystem.”

In a blog post about the deal, Eventbrite cited a third-party study conducted by Music Watch, Inc that found that 42% of people discover new artists and bands through streaming services like Spotify. "Half of these fans go on to purchase tickets to see those artists live," the post read. "With the new integration, Spotify listeners can complete their ticket purchase on Eventbrite in two quick taps — no login or captcha required. Since every additional step costs 10% in conversion on average, this seamless checkout experience will reduce overall drop-off and dramatically increase ticket sales for artists and promoters."

Last week (June 9), Eventbrite expanded its ticketing reach with the acquisition of Ticketfly from Pandora for a reported $200 million in a deal expected to close in Q3.

Meanwhile, AXS noted that its personalized recommendations for events will be gleaned from data that includes listening behavior, artist preferences and user location and will be flagged to users of Spotify’s desktop or mobile app. AXS shows will appear on the Artist Pages under the Concert tabs on Desktop, Artist Pages on Mobile under On Tour, and in the Concert Recommendation emails of Spotify's bi-weekly emails.

Earlier this year, Spotify upgraded Fan Insights and rebranded the initiative as Spotify for Artists, which gives music makers access to listeners' demographic information, real-time song information, playlist performance and detail on how folks are listening to their music.

The partnerships with AXS and Eventbrite follow recent Spotify ticketing integrations with Ticketmaster and Songkick.